Removing Pregnancy Limits in Advance Directives

A growing number of states have been removing pregnancy limits in advance directives. Washington just joined this list. The rationale for these amendments is that invalidating a pregnant woman's directive and forcing life support upon her until her baby could be delivered violates the constitutional right of a competent person to refuse unwanted lifesaving medical treatment. 

While Washingtonians can use any compliant advance directive form, its current statutory model form contains the following pregnancy provision:  "If I have been diagnosed as pregnant and that diagnosis is known to my physician, this directive shall have no force or effect during the course of my pregnancy." To avoid confusion, the new legislation removes this pregnancy provision from the suggested model form for an advance health care directive. 

It is the legal right of every adult person to think seriously about and direct in advance what they would want for themselves and their families if they were ever in an incapacitated state and unable in that moment to consent to medical care. People do not lose their civil and human rights to refuse or accept medical treatment simply because they become or can become pregnant.